The National Retail Federation notes that consumers last year on average spent about $41 on a gift card for the holidays.

This year the prediction, despite the economic winds, that the average will jump to slightly more than $43 per gift card, according to an NRF survey released recently.

In all, the typical consumer holiday shopping for a gift card will spend $155 this year, NRF predicts, a leap from the $145 spent last year.

What’s more, NRF figures four-in-five people will buy a gift card, the ultimate gift when the person you’re shopping for is either too difficult — or warrants very little time — to purchase a regular gift.

Solar photovoltaic panel installations hit a national record 449 megawatts in the third quarter of 2011 – a 140 percent jump form the same quarter in 2010, according to a study by GMT Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Almost 60 percent of the installations were in California and New Jersey – which have been the perennial leaders in solar installations. Colorado was seventh, down a notch when compare with the third quarter of 2010.

Here are the rankings for 3Q 2011, with last year’s place in parenthese

The overall cost of installed solar arrays (residential, commercial, utility-scale) fell 14.4 percent between the second and third quarters of 2011 to $4.45/W. That was driven by a drop in the price of utility-scale installations.

Residential system prices dropped 2.7 percent with the national average installed price decreasing from $6.41/W to $6.24/W. That was primarily due to price declines in major markets — including California, Colorado, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In those markets, some system were being installed for less than $5.00/W, according to the report.

Laura Keeney writes about aerospace and airlines for The Post. When she's not at work, you can usually find her taking in live music, reading voraciously, or doing something science-related and nerdy. She also loves The Clash ... a lot.

Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.